Oshawa council to look at rec user fees, cut social housing units

Council wraps up financial strategy talks

Oshawa City Hall

OSHAWA -- Increasing recreation fees and getting out of the social housing business are all on the table as Oshawa councillors work on keeping the City budget under control in the next five years.

Councillors recently wrapped up discussions on a financial strategy that will extend from 2013 to 2018, serving as a guiding document for annual budget talks.

After rejecting increases to recreation user fees a year ago, councillors are once again asking staff for review of recreation user fees with a goal of "improving fairness between user groups and the general taxpayer, and achieving a better balance of user fees to taxation revenue".

"Some of our fees are the lowest in the region, that's a problem," said Councillor Roger Bouma. "It's a problem the taxpayers end up picking up and subsidizing."

Some of our fees are the lowest in the region, tha

Coun. Bouma said he did not want to see changes to the baseball and soccer field $5 fee which was implemented last year for children's teams.

The motion on the issue was introduced by Coun. Nancy Diamond and received support from Coun. Bouma, and councillors John Aker, Bob Champman, Nester Pidwerbecki and Mayor John Henry.

Coun. Marimpietri said an increase in fees would hit seniors and young families the hardest. Coun. England said the City should look at finding savings in other areas, perhaps looking at how much it costs to enforce bylaws like the housing bylaw near the UOIT and Durham College campus.

While he didn't support looking at user fees, Coun. Sanders suggested looking at some of the programs offered through the City and determining if they're needed.

"If we have pottery classes and we're competing with someone who has a business, do we need that service?"

Councillors also adopted a strategy that would see the City of Oshawa exit the social housing business within five years.

As it stands, Oshawa owns two properties, the Owen D. Friend buildings at 485 and 501 Normandy St. and the Chris Mason Hall at 173 Westmount St. Staff estimated the two properties need $4.5 million in repairs. However, because Oshawa is a lower-tier municipality, it cannot access funding programs for social housing. Only the Region of Durham could do that. For that reason, Oshawa officials have asked the Region to assume responsibility for the buildings.

"If the Region comes back and says they don't want that ... this now is telling staff that in the next five years we need to get out of that because this is not one of our core responsibilities," said Coun. Chapman.

Councillors made it clear that no one would be thrown out of the buildings and the process to move tenants from Oshawa's units to Regional units has already begun.

Coun. England opposed the move and wanted to know what impact Oshawa's decision would have on wait times for social housing.

One item that didn't make the cut was a proposal from Mayor Henry to reduce the size of council by two representatives. Councillors quickly defeated the idea, saying that it was an electoral issue that needed to be dealt with in a separate process.

Reporter Reka Szekely covers the City of Oshawa for Metroland Media Group’s Durham Region Division. Reka's social media column appears every other week. Contact her on Facebook, Twitter (@rszekely)